Michael says...

I’ve decided to round 2010 out with a bang. By this, I mean that I propose to faithfully blog for the next 28 days of December. ALL 28 days (You may be wondering what happened to the first three days of December…they disappeared into a black hole. No joke.). After eleven months, I realized the other day that I only have 50 odd posts to show for it. That is truly sad and pathetic.

So I am correcting my wayward self; bringing it firmly back on track.

I don’t have much to report as far as today’s embargo goes. It’s 5PM on Saturday and we haven’t left the apartment yet. Oh, bliss! It’s one of “those” days - a gray, rainy Saturday, its dreariness accentuated by the skeletal arms of naked trees that lift high towards heaven. I slept in late, then subjected my abs to a grueling workout of P90X, cleaned the apartment in pajamas, and felt irritation when Trix jumped on my freshly vacuumed couch.

On Thursday, however (yep, that black hole day…), I had two China moments: I discovered that my Starbucks holiday-themed paper cup was made in the U.S. Huzzah! Then that evening’s episode of “The Office” was about China, but in a very random sort of way. The episode began with Michael walking up to Pam’s desk, picking up one object after the other,and announcing, “Made in China, made in China, made in China.”

Awesome beginning. Where is this going? I wondered. Michael is upset that America is losing its coveted, “greatest-country-in-the-world” spot to China. He wows everyone with a few (for once) correct facts about China, even stumping the office smart guy, Oscar. The moral of the story: America is still great; in fact, it’s wonderful enough for its citizens to decide whether they want to do something about China or not.

Alas, Office, you disappoint yet again.